You always have to have the right stuff, Lennie baby. Without the right stuff, you can’t make perfection.

I smiled at my mother’s words, and went to the fridge.

“Beer, wine or Kool-Aid?” I asked Bennett.

“Kool-Aid, please. I’m on call tonight,” he answered immediately.

“I want Kool-Aid, too,” Reagan chirped from her seat beside her father.

I smiled, and pulled down one of the cups my mother had for my brother’s children.

“Olaf or Anna?” I asked her, holding up the cups.

She pointed at Anna, and I shook my head.

I shouldn’t have even asked.

I filled three glasses, and took them all to the table while my mom pulled her world famous lasagna out of the oven and placed it in the middle of the table.

I didn’t really know if it was ‘world famous,’ but I kind of felt like it should be.

It really was the bomb, and my mother never failed to make it delicious in all the times I’d had it over the years. In fact, it kept getting better and better.

“What am I, chopped liver?” Emily asked, annoyed when she didn’t see a drink for herself.

“Emily,” I said in annoyance. “I have two hands. You have two hands. Really, it would’ve made more sense had you helped me carry one of those, instead of sitting down expecting someone to get your glass for you.”

Reagan snickered beside me, looking down at her empty plate in front of her.

Bennett looked up at the ceiling, studying the chandelier above the table.

“I’m sorry, Bennett and Reagan, but my children have no manners at times. When their brother gets in on the mix, which is something I’m sure you’ll find out soon, they can’t be stopped. Be happy you only have one child,” my father said amusedly.

Bennett snorted. “I have a sister of my own. There’s been no slapping yet, so I call this a good dinner so far. Something that most assuredly would’ve happened had we been at my parent’s place with my sister.”

My father smiled. “Well, in that case, let’s enjoy dinner. My pretty girl made some good food, and has been teasing me with the lovely aroma since this afternoon.”

My mother blushed.

“Oh, Brock. You say the sweetest things,” my mother said, stopping behind his chair to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Gag me,” Emily choked.

And for once, I seemed to agree with her.

***

Bennett

“Can you tell me about Lennox’s stalker?” I asked as we watched from the bar area as Lennox, Lucinda, and Reagan cut cookies with their cookie cutters.

Brock growled low in his throat.

“She’s been following my girl around for going on five years. It’s amazing to me that one woman can hold such a grudge over a man trying to get a date from her. Lennox was nothing more than a passing fancy to that man, and has paid the price ever since.” Brock shook his head. “I can’t tell you much, except that I don’t know much. Lennox has, in some way, shape, or form, had to move because of that psycho four times in the last five years. It never fails that she seems to find her, either.”

“I’ve noticed that myself,” I informed him. “And I think she has some sort of inside person that’s getting the information for her. Lennox is unlisted in all the phonebooks, and she has no home phone. She’s registered with the DMV, of course, which means she’s in the police database. However, that information is confidential and in all actuality, quite hard to get to.”

“Those aren’t the only places that would have her name, phone number, and addresses on file. The place she banks at, her doctor’s office, hell, even her employer, all have that information,” Brock supplied.

I nodded. “That I know. What we have to do is just figure out the source. How she’s getting that information. I have a guy I’m close to running the information for me as we speak. He started sometime this afternoon, and should get back to me by tomorrow morning.”

Brock nodded. “If there’s anything I can provide you with, please let me know. I’m well and truly disturbed that this is happening to my daughter, and I’m tired of seeing her eyes filled with fear.”

I one hundred percent agreed with that.

“I’ll find something,” I told him honestly. “Nobody’s that good. She’ll screw up, and when she does, I’ll find her.”

He sighed. “I’ve shelled out quite a bit of money to this PI I’ve found, yet he says there’s nothing to find. You’ve given me more hope in the last ten minutes than I’ve had from him in five years.”

I truly felt honored that he’d say that.

Well and truly honored.

Offering him my hand, I said, “Now just to convince her that she’s staying with me until we figure this out.”

Brock laughed.

Guffawed, actually.

Bringing the female attention in the kitchen with it.

Lucinda and Lennox were smiling happily, and Reagan was contemplating.

I knew she was confused, as well as hopeful.

She’d met some of my dates before, but never before had we spent as much time with them as we had with Lennox.

She’d never met their parents, and she’d never had them spend the night with me and been aware of it.

Lennox had met all my friends. My sister. My child.

And would meet my parents this weekend.

That spelled out permanent to her right there, and I was sure she was afraid to hope.

As much as she loved me, I knew she wished for a mom to call her own.

All of her friends had sleepovers, and their mothers were there to plan, shuttle, and party with them.

Reagan, though, didn’t have that.

It was inappropriate for a male to have that many little girls over at his place.

“Oh, you really have my daughter pegged, don’t you?” Brock asked, wiping the corners of his eyes with a handkerchief that he’d withdrawn from his pocket.

I smiled.

“It definitely hurt her to stay yesterday. I could tell she wanted to go home. Reagan seems to be a sore spot for her. She likes her, but she also doesn’t want to stay over with Reagan there because she doesn’t want it to be ‘indecent’,” I said, air quoting with my fingers.

He nodded. “We instilled the fear of God in our kids when they were teenagers, and I’m afraid that’s spilled over into their adult lives. No premarital sex. No sleeping, living with their significant others before marriage. You name it, we tried it. Our oldest, Denny, was an ‘oops’ baby for us. Since both of us were in the first two years of our residency, at the time, we really struggled. And we passed that wisdom down to our children. It was horribly hard, and something that we don’t recommend anyone to ever try. And we made sure they knew it, too.”

I smiled. “I had Reagan when I was seventeen. I can concur that in no way, shape, or form was it ever easy. I joined the Navy when I was seventeen, having graduated early. Then found out, within three weeks of enlisting, that I was going to be a father. It was the hardest thing in the world to leave her, but I’d already been sworn in. I had no option. It’s a feeling that I’d never wish on my worst enemy, leaving your child thousands of miles away from you. Helpless doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

Brock’s eyes went soft as he listened to me talk about my struggles. His going gray eyebrows lowered, and he looked down to contemplate his shoes.

“You’re a good man, from what I hear. And I’m glad my daughter found you,” he said once I was done.

I preened slightly at the compliment. “Thanks.”

“Do you want another…” Brock asked, but trailed off when the front door slammed open, and a man thirty some odd years younger than Brock poured through the door.

He was angry.

That I could tell within moments of entering.

He had a scowl on his face that could rival the very one I had on mine at the moment, and his eyes were narrowed on me.

“Who’re you?” He rumbled.

I raised my brow.

“Bennett Alvarez. Who’re you?” I countered.